Make a 100% Recovery from a Traumatic Brain Injury

Recovery from a Traumatic Brain Injury

Written by Jeremy D. Earle, JD

March 15, 2023

Recovery from a traumatic brain injury in Colorado

Everyone understands that the brain is an essential component of the human body. It is the command center for everything a person does and can do, from breathing, pumping the heart, and moving to think, emotions, and making decisions. The brain is involved in everything that occurs in the human body.

It should come as no surprise. Therefore, that injury to this crucial organ may be fatal or profoundly affect a person’s ability to function in the world.

A person who has suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) will almost certainly face a lengthy road to recovery. The early phases of recovery, the duration of the healing process, and the long-term outcomes are all covered in this article.

Of course, the severity of all brain injuries varies, and everyone is impacted differently. Still, this information may be helpful in understanding what you or a family member is going through. We have taken into considering the information provided by the Brain Trauma Foundation in writing this article.

Damage to the right and left brains, as well as TBI

The hemispheres are the two halves of the human brain. The left hemisphere is in charge of the right half of the body, whereas the right hemisphere is in charge of the left. This indicates that if a person’s right side of the brain is damaged, the left side of their body will be impacted, and vice versa.

Although this is not true for everyone, the right brain is in charge of spatial skills, intuitive processes, and the organization of visual information in general. These functions are all important in absorbing information and making sense of what we see.

The right side of the brain, for example, is utilized to interpret music and visual arts to obtain a better comprehension of them. It may also be utilized to remember visual and aural experiences, as well as recognize faces.

The left hemisphere handles language and logical functions, such as reading, writing, listening, speaking, and mathematical calculations. Word and fact memories are also stored in the left hemisphere of the brain. If you need to recollect anything you read, for example, your left brain will take over.

This knowledge is relevant to head traumas because various functions and cognitive skills may be impaired depending on which side of the brain is injured. The extent to which a person can move their limbs, accomplish basic arithmetic, or even talk depends on which side is affected and the degree of the injury.

TBI’s Physical Effects

The majority of persons who have a TBI do not have significant physical limitations. Those who develop physical impairment symptoms might expect to restore control within a few months to a year.

Patients who have had many concussions or have second impact syndrome may develop physical symptoms such as loss of balance and coordination. Similarly, persons who have moderate TBIs may feel weariness and weakness for a short time. These symptoms may be long-term or permanent if they have had several TBIs.

Some persons may have epileptic seizures as a result of brain damage. This condition may be harmful and raise worry in and of itself. Doctors are often concerned about this symptom and may prescribe drugs to help prevent it.

TBI’s Cognitive Effects

For persons who have had a brain injury, cognitive impairment is a prevalent condition. Individuals who have had moderate to severe TBIs may struggle with cognitive functions such as focusing, paying attention, and remembering new information. They may notice that their capacity to talk, solve problems, and think has been hampered or hindered.

Those suffering from the cognitive consequences of a TBI may struggle with:

When attempting to talk, recalling words or sentences

Impaired perception and visual skills, such as the ability to recognize faces or make sense of everyday items

Seeing everything in their area of vision

Obtaining desire to begin a job

Concentration and completion of a task

Keeping track of data or fresh thoughts in their heads

Reiterating or forgetting what they or others have previously stated

Reasoning and logical reasoning

TBI’s Emotional/Behavioral Consequences

Emotional and behavioral problems are common in people who have had damage to the right side of their brain. Because the brain is far more intricate than the left-or-right system, this relies on several circumstances and the regions injured. Damage to the various sections of the human brain, known as lobes, may result in various outcomes.

The frontal lobe, for example, aids in the regulation of personality and self-control. Damage to this region might result in personality changes or issues with self-control. This might manifest as a shift in a person’s personality from exuberant and gregarious to gloomy or disinterested. After a TBI to the frontal lobe, a mild-mannered individual may become quickly enraged and aroused.

Damage to any area of the brain that influences emotional behavior may manifest itself in the following ways:

Irrational conduct

Angry outbursts or fits

Apathy

Dangerous conduct

Depression

Anxiety

Trouble controlling emotions, or mood swings, is one of the most prevalent emotional/behavioral symptoms reported by patients or loved ones. After a TBI, a person may have emotional ups and downs, ranging from happiness to rage to melancholy to indifference. Others may find themselves “expressing” feelings they are not experiencing, such as sobbing when they are not sad or laughing when nothing is amusing. This is a symptom that the brain has difficulty deciphering the emotions the person is experiencing and responding appropriately.

Stages of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

After a major brain injury, swelling and bleeding frequently result in a reduced cognitive state as the brain heals. A coma is a medical term for this situation. Various words describe the condition in which people are when they awaken from a coma.

Patients who are unconscious and unable to react to stimuli around them are said to be in a coma. They don’t go through typical wake-sleep cycles, either. When a patient wakes up from a coma, they are said to bein avegetativestate.

The patient has sleep-wake cycles and may respond to stimuli in small ways while in this condition. Finally, when the swelling and bleeding subside, and the patient regains consciousness, they enter a minimally aware condition.

In this stage, patients are mainly awake, react to and are aware of the stimulus, and may respond to directions, display emotions, and communicate in some capacity.

A patient’s recovery from a TBI is not necessarily linear or constant, as it would be in the case of a healing wound. Because of the brain’s chemistry and complexity, this is the case. A patient who blinks one day may not be able to blink again for a few days.

Similarly, when the brain repairs, a patient may go in and out of consciousness. This period of healing might range anything from a few days to many weeks.

Brain function normally improves when edema diminishes, and blood supply increases. While the progressing, encouraging recovery indicators may come and go daily, the overall recovery is going ahead. All functions should ultimately return to normal for people who have not sustained an irreversible injury to any part of the brain.

Recovery Time After a TBI

Brain injuries often recover fast at first, with several improvements, before slowing down. Within the first six months, the most rapid progress is frequently seen. After then, the patient will continue to improve for the next two years after their accident.

It is usually at this phase that progress slows significantly. This is because the severe symptoms of the injury (such as swelling and bleeding) have gone away, but the nerve damage has remained. The remaining ailments will take time and practice to heal.

In the medical world, comprehending the long-term effects of a TBI is still impossible. Professionals in the medical field understand that the more serious the damage, the less likely the patient will completely recover.

Similarly, the length of time a person spends in a coma is a reliable indicator of how quickly they recover. In general, however, a doctor cannot predict whether one patient or another will develop long-term problems. Everyone is unique.

What We Know About Recovering from a Traumatic Brain Injury

Patients who received a moderate to severe TBI experienced the following two years after their injury, according to data from the TBI Model System:

The majority of individuals continue to improve their abilities.

In 24 hours, 34% of persons needed some supervision.

Ninety-three percent of individuals do not live in an assisted facility and instead live in their own homes.

Seek the advice of a Colorado Springs traumatic brain injury lawyer.

If your loved one has suffered brain damage due to someone else’s carelessness, you should contact an expert Colorado brain injury lawyer right once. Our team of highly competent brain injury attorneys Warrior Car Accident Lawyers, is here to help you get the compensation you deserve for your injuries and losses. For a no-obligation consultation, please call 719-300-1100 or send us an email.

Warrior Car Accident Lawyers

1902 W. Colorado Ave., Suite 100

Colorado Springs, CO 80904

719-300-1100

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